Antares 127mm Arrives

Woohoo! A quick visual check, everything seems OK. Brad (the seller) did a great job packing it up for the trip from Washington. I mounted it on the Sirius to get an idea how easy setup is going to be in six or eight months when the weather becomes conducive to astronomical observation.

She's a big 'un for sure, not sure the total weight with diagonal, eyepiece, rings, dovetail, and finder scope mounted - probably up over 22 lbs, so it should be well under the published 30 lb. limit of the mount. Initial impressions:

• It barely balances in RA with the one counterweight all the way at the end of the shaft. The 2" TV diagonal is very tight in the visual back but I think it's OK.
  
  
• The rack & pinion focuser has a lot of really goopy grease on it, might want to look into cleaning it up a bit, but it appers to be smooth.
  
  
• There is a small amount of play in the declination axis - not sure if that is normal, or if it will affect use.
  
  
• I'm going to have to extend the tripod legs quite a bit if I want to observe near zenith without kneeling on the ground; maybe a pier extension will be better, I really like to keep the legs as short as possible.

Linda is going to freak when she sees this thing in the living room...